Origins & Early Life

Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was a Syrian Sunni Muslim historian, biographer, and hadith scholar. He authored major biographical and historical works including Siyar A'lam al-Nubala, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, and Tarikh al-Islam. Among his best-known teachers and scholarly associates were al-Mizzi, al-Birzali, and Ibn Taymiyya. Of Turkmen descent, al-Dhahabi was born in Damascus.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

His name, Ibn al-Dhahabi (son of the goldsmith), reveals his father's profession. He began his study of hadith at age eighteen, travelling from Damascus to Baalbek, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Nabulus, Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Hijaz, and elsewhere, before returning to Damascus to teach and write. He authored many works and was widely renowned as a perspicuous critic and expert examiner of the hadith. He wrote an encyclopaedic biographical history and was the foremost authority on the canonical readings of the Qur'an. Some of his teachers were women.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

At Baalbek, Zaynab bint ʿUmar b. al-Kindī was among his most influential teachers. al-Dhahabi lost his sight two years before he died, leaving three children: the eldest, his daughter, Amat al-'Aziz, and his two sons, 'Abd Allah...

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